Who will win TechCrunch 40?

Part of the fun of the next two days will be seeing who’ll win the $50,000 at TechCrunch 40, which starts in a few hours here in San Francisco.

I’ve asked a few of my friends and the early hype goes to Cubic Telecom, a company from Ireland headed by Pat Phelan. Several of my friends say that they are the ones to watch — their demo is on Tuesday (makes international calling, and traveling with a cell phone overseas, better than before, my friends say). Formerly known as “Roam4free.”

The problem is no one who has seen all these companies’ new offerings is talking (the companies are under strict embargoes not to show anyone their stuff outside of NDA land), so we’ve gotta do some triangulation to figure out who’ll be the best (which also makes this, at best, an educated guess at what will win).

Why try to pick a winner before you know? Well, that gives you some context. You go check out the company that’s getting the early hype from your friends (they usually are right, by the way) then you compare everyone else to that company. If you find a company that’s better than that one you have a story.

So, how about it — which company is better than Cubic Telecom?

Oh, and I love that the early favorite doesn’t come from Silicon Valley. I bet if Cubic Telecom wins Ireland’s best tech blogger, Tom Raftery, will have a big party.

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Published by Robert Scoble

Chief Strategy Officer at Infinite Retina. https://infiniteretina.com
The Spatial Computing (AR/VR/AI) Agency that helps entrepreneurs with their AR/VR projects and companies.
View all posts by Robert Scoble

31 thoughts on “Who will win TechCrunch 40?”

I also love that these guys are from Sillicon Valley, but of course, we all know Ireland has a very powerful tech base (and it was really cool how they built it!).

The old saw about your friends being right about what is “good” follows with what Peter Lynch used to say about the market: if you see people really love a product, good bet it is a great company behind it. Makes sense.

I also love that these guys are from Sillicon Valley, but of course, we all know Ireland has a very powerful tech base (and it was really cool how they built it!).

The old saw about your friends being right about what is “good” follows with what Peter Lynch used to say about the market: if you see people really love a product, good bet it is a great company behind it. Makes sense.

You mist be kidding. All pat does is take a regular roaming sim (there are tens of those on the web, do a google) which has no incoming charges then he gives you a local number in your country and forwards it to the roaming sim, that is all… anyone can do it.
But you right about one thing – — it is all Hype!!
If that is what the show is aboutt then he will be first place!
Voiceserve has been doing this for a long time, but we don’t brag like the Irish!

You mist be kidding. All pat does is take a regular roaming sim (there are tens of those on the web, do a google) which has no incoming charges then he gives you a local number in your country and forwards it to the roaming sim, that is all… anyone can do it.
But you right about one thing – — it is all Hype!!
If that is what the show is aboutt then he will be first place!
Voiceserve has been doing this for a long time, but we don’t brag like the Irish!

From the little bit that I’ve seen I think that Mint.com could be in with a decent shot if they pull off a decent demo. Another company is Ponoko, they demoed today with an astoundingly original idea, but got very little coverage from Duncan on the TechCrunch post. They have a live version that you can actually use right now.

From the little bit that I’ve seen I think that Mint.com could be in with a decent shot if they pull off a decent demo. Another company is Ponoko, they demoed today with an astoundingly original idea, but got very little coverage from Duncan on the TechCrunch post. They have a live version that you can actually use right now.